SPECTA projects

SPECTA cohorts

For SPECTA, please enroll patients with the tumor type specified in the table, ONLY when the status is green. You can enroll those patients by clicking on the , next to the green status.
Study specific information (HBM, Project Specific selection criteria, CRF completion guidelines…) can be found here . Please note that your electronic database ORTA password is required for access (protocol 1553).

For any questions, please contact the general SPECTA e-mail address: specta@eortc.org.

Thorax (THOR)

Primary disease Projects Status
Cohort 1

  • Patients with confirmed advanced or metastatic NSCLC (stage 3b and 4)
  • Naïve of any anti-local or systemic cancer treatment (in the adjuvant or metastatic settings)
 RP-1828 IMMUcan To be opened
Cohort 1

  • Patients with confirmed advanced or metastatic NSCLC (stage 3b and 4)
  • Naïve of any anti-local or systemic cancer treatment (in the adjuvant or metastatic settings)
 Lung Cancer Personalized Medicine Open
Cohort 2

  • Patients with advanced or metastatic rare cancer
  • Malignant thymoma; thymic carcinoma; mesothelioma of pleura and pericardium; or neuroendocrine tumors of the thorax
  • Patients older than 12 years old
 RP-1843 Arcagen To be opened

Head and Neck (H&N)

Primary disease Projects Status
Cohort 1

  • Patients with confirmed metastatic SCCHN
  • To be treated in 1st line
 RP-1828 IMMUcan To be opened
Cohort 2

  • SCCHN patients with confirmed progression after treatment with chemo-radiation
  • To receive salvage surgery less than 1 year after chemo-radiation
 RP-1828 IMMUcan To be opened
Cohort 3

  • Patients with advanced or metastatic rare cancer
  • Salivary gland tumors of major salivary gland; salivary gland type tumors of head and neck with a strong focus on acinic cell carcinoma (diagnostic based on morphology, but IHC can be performed for DOG1 and SOX10); NUT carcinoma (presence of NUT, cytokeratin and p40 by IHC) or neuroendocrine
  • Patients older than 12 years old
 RP-1843 Arcagen To be opened

Breast cancer (Breas)

Primary disease Projects Status
Cohort 1

  • Patients with confirmed metastatic TNBC
  • To be treated in 1st line
 RP-1828 IMMUcan To be opened
Cohort 2

  • Patients with confirmed diagnostic of localized TNBC (stage I to III)
  • Treated with anthracycline-taxane-based neo-adjuvant therapy
  • With residual disease at clinical or imaging examination prior to surgery
 RP-1828 IMMUcan To be opened
Cohort 3

  • Patients with confirmed diagnostic of localized HER2+ (stage I to III) breast cancer
  • Treated with anthracycline-taxane-based neo-adjuvant therapy
  • With residual disease at clinical or imaging examination prior to surgery
 RP-1828 IMMUcan To be opened

Gastrointestinal (GI)

Primary disease Projects Status
Cohort 1

  • Patients with a confirmed diagnostic of metastatic colorectal adenocarcinoma
  • Planed resection of the primary tumor and liver metastasis in 1 or several successive surgical procedures, without any intercurrent treatment between procedures
  • Neoadjuvant FOLFOX based treatment w/wo biological is allowed
 RP-1828 IMMUcan To be opened
Cohort 2

  • Patients with advanced or metastatic rare cancer
  • Pseudomyxoma/adenocarcinoma of the appendix ; cholangiocarcinoma ; gallbladder; germ cell tumors; or neuroendocrine tumors
  • Patients older than 12 years old
 RP-1843 Arcagen To be opened

Genito Urinary (GU)

Primary disease Projects Status
Cohort 1

  • Patients with confirmed metastatic RCC
  • To be treated in 1st line
RP-1828 IMMUcan To be opened
Cohort 2

  • Patients with advanced or metastatic rare cancer
  • Yolk sac tumors; trophoblastic tumors; sex cord tumours; germ cell tumour; and malignant/immature teratoma; or neuroendocrine tumors
  • Patients older than 12 years old
 RP-1843 Arcagen To be opened

Sarcoma (SARCO)

Primary disease Projects Status
Cohort 1

  • Patients with non-grade 1 bone or soft tissue sarcoma
  • Newly diagnosed or any relapsed
  • Age between 12 and 29
 RP-1759 AYA Open
Cohort 2

  • Patients with advanced or metastatic rare cancer
  • Undifferentiated sarcoma of the bone; aggressive angiomyxoma; alveolar soft part sarcoma; or small round cell sarcoma without translocations
  • Patients older than 12 years old
 RP-1843 Arcagen To be opened

Central Nervous system (CNS)

Primary disease Projects Status
Cohort 1

  • Patients with high grade glioma (grade 3 and 4, including relapsed disease from lower grade)
  • Newly diagnosed or any relapsed
  • Age between 12 and 29
 RP-1759 AYA Open
Cohort 2

  • Patients with advanced or metastatic rare cancer
  • Embryonal tumors of the central nervous system
  • Patients older than 12 years old
 RP-1843 Arcagen To be opened

Female reproductive organs (Gyne)

Primary disease Projects Status
Cohort 1

  • Patients with advanced or metastatic rare cancer
  • Rare ovarian cancer; primary peritoneal cancer and/or fallopian-tube cancer including low grade serous carcinoma; mucinous adenocarcinoma; clear cell adenocarcinoma; other rare epithelial cancer; sex cord tumours; germ cell tumour; and malignant/immature teratoma
  • Patients older than 12 years old
 RP-1843 Arcagen To be opened

Endocrine (endo)

Primary disease Projects Status
Cohort 1

  • Patients with advanced or metastatic rare cancer
  • Adrenal cortical carcinoma; iodin refractory carcinoma of the thyroid gland; or endocrine carcinoma of the thyroid gland
  • Patients older than 12 years old
 RP-1843 Arcagen To be opened

Peritoneum (Perit)

Primary disease Projects Status
Cohort 1

  • Patients with advanced or metastatic rare cancer
  • Mesothelioma of the peritoneum; or epithelial tumors or the peritoneum and retroperitoneum
  • Patients older than 12 years old
 RP-1843 Arcagen To be opened

Eye (Eye)

Primary disease Projects Status
Cohort 1

  • Patients with advanced or metastatic rare cancer
  • Malignant melanoma of the uvea; or retinoblastoma
  • Patients older than 12 years old
 RP-1843 Arcagen To be opened

Skin (skin)

Primary disease Projects Status
Cohort 1

  • Patients with advanced or metastatic rare cancer
  • Adnexal carcinoma of the skin
  • Patients older than 12 years old
 RP-1843 Arcagen To be opened

Unknown primary (cup)

Primary disease Projects Status
Cohort 1

  • Patients with advanced or metastatic rare cancer
  • Unknown primary site
  • Patients older than 12 years old
 RP-1843 Arcagen To be opened

Projects description

RP-1828 IMMUcan

The goal is to generate broad molecular (WES, lcWGS and RNAseq) and cellular profiling data (multiplex IF and IMC) of the tumour and its microenvironment from cancer patients integrated with clinical data, to understand how the immune system and tumours interact, and the impact of current therapeutic interventions.

We will collect:

  • Material available at enrollment in IMMUcan:

    FFPE Tissue: At least one FFPE block or a minimum 15 FFPE slides

    Fresh Frozen (FF) Tissue: Requested when available (for molecular analysis)

    Blood:1 serum tube, 3 ACD tubes, 1 BCT, 1 PAXgene RNA tube, 1 PAXgene DNA tube, EDTA tube

    Others: Stool and saliva samples

  • At follow-up (at progression, but check cohort specificities):

    FFPE Tissue: At least one FFPE block or a minimum 15 FFPE slides (when possible, depending on tissue availability)

    Fresh Frozen (FF) Tissue: requested when available (for molecular analysis)

    Blood: 1 serum tube, 3 ACD tubes, 1 BCT, 1 PAXgene RNA tube, 1 PAXgene DNA tube, EDTA tube

Lung Cancer Personalized Medicine

The primary goal of this project (with Benjamin Besse as study coordinator) is to screen Non Small Cell Lung Carcinoma patients (with at least three months life-expectancy and 18 years or older) for eligibility into several downstream clinical trials.

For this study, FFPE tissue will be collected at diagnosis, and used for NGS sequencing (Illumina TST170 gene panel). After molecular tumor board validation, you will be informed if your patient is eligible for a specific targeted trial, such as:

  • phase 2 STARTRK-2 clinical trial with Entrectinib (Ignyta trial) for patients with NTRK1/2/3, ROS1 or ALK gene rearrangements
  • Phase 1 clinical trial with LOXO-292 for patients with RET-Fusion Lung Cancer

Blood will be collected at diagnosis and follow-up, and used as liquid biopsy to support the European funded project called Cancer-ID. The goal of this project is to develop/improve and standardize methods for liquid biopsy collection and analysis.

RP-1759 AYA/TYA

12-29 year-old: Non-Grade 1 Bone and Soft Tissue Sarcoma , High Grade Diffuse Astrocytic Tumors patients

EORTC wants to develop a sequencing project targeting specifically young adults (12 to 29 years old) with rare cancer (with Martin McCabe as study coordinator):

  • to understand better the biology of the tumor in this specific population, and compare it to children and adults with similar disease
  • to improve the inclusion of young adults into clinical trials.

The pilot study will be focusing on young adults with high grade glioma as well as non-grade 1 bone and soft tissue sarcoma. Patients must be recruited prospectively within 6 weeks of initial diagnosis or of any disease relapse or progression, defined by imaging procedure or date of biospy (when available). The aim of the pilot phase is to test the infrastructure and our accrual potential in this age group of patients.

For this project, we will collect FFPE tissue available at enrollment to perform molecular analysis (WES, RNAseq and EPIC array) and also implement a central pathology review as well as a molecular tumor board, to bring the clinical knowledge back to the patient and the clinician.

RP-1843 Arcagen

This is a collaborative project between EORTC and EURACAN (with Jean Yves Blay as study coordinator), to perform molecular characterisation of rare cancers patients, using Foundation Medicine tests. The goal of this project is to get a better understanding of the genomic landscape of rare cancers and potentially help define possibilities for targeted treatments/clinical trials for this population.

We will collect at least one FFPE block or a minimum 17 FFPE slides. Samples should contain sufficient tumour and stroma content and/or be large enough to meet DNA/RNA input requirements. If the FFPE sample does not meet the quality and quantity requirement, a blood sample will be required.